Have No Fear
Posted by jen on July 25th, 2010 filed in Abriella, Colby, Family, Jennifer, Stephen1 Comment »
I haven’t forgotten about the dear ole blog. Just haven’t had time! I know that has been a running theme on here lately. It’s true, though! Seems we have just been going, going, going this summer!
Ok, here is the 13-14 month post for Colby:
Colby is ALL OVER THE PLACE! He is walking everywhere, and it’s so funny to watch him. He looks like he’s going to topple any minute, but he does stay upright and rarely falls, and he is practically running sometimes. It’s hilarious! He’s pretty proud of himself and his walking abilities. His sister is too.
He’s eating a ton of stuff. He loves strawberries, pancakes, mac & cheese, grapes, peaches, pineapple, all kinds of cereal, milk, water, chicken nuggets…well, he likes a lot of stuff. It’s much easier to feed him at this age than it was his sister! He still pretty much avoids all veggies. How is it that he’ll eat anything off the floor, but if it is green, he will push your hand away before even trying it?!?! Answer me that!
He has his 10th tooth coming in. It’s the matching molar to the 9th one. His gums on the bottom where the molars will come in are super swollen as well (have been for a while), so I figure those will be next whenever they decide to cut through.
Colby loves to shake his head yes. This and saying, “dat!” is his main form of communication! Typical boy! He points, says, “dat,” and shakes his head yes. HA! He also pretty much thinks the sign for eat is an all encompassing sign as well—means “I want that.” We have since reminded him that the sign for “more” still exists and he has started using that again. He also still signs, “all done.” He still says mama and dada, but would prefer to stand at your ankle and raise him arms and be pitiful until you pick him up!
He seems like he gets skinnier everyday! I think he’s definitely got his daddy’s metabolism! Eats a ton, but doesn’t get fat! He’s still got plenty of chub on him, so no fear of him wasting away just yet!
He’s still in all cloth diapers. I’ve actually started using more prefolds in recent times. He has the most sensitive bottom (has since he was born), so those help get a little more air to his bottom and keep the rashes to a minimum. If we ever use disposables, he gets a diaper rash within 1 or 2 diapers usually! So, we’ll stick to the cloth. I really enjoy using them anyway.
He’s wearing 12-18 month clothes still. I figure we’ll be in these for a while. He’s got a cute little tux that he’s going to wear this next Saturday to his Grandma’s wedding! 
Not sure how much he weighs.
Will bark for a dog sound and moo for cows. His best noise is his car sounds though! Once again, typical boy. He loves to yell and make lots of noise…best done in the car! That, my friends, is not pleasant. He will stop (at least temporarily) when you tell him to keep a soft voice. He does understand.
CANNOT stand for you to tell him “no.” We have addressed this previously, but it still stands. He will pucker up and just start crying his poor little eyes out if you tell him not to do something (like, you know, throw food) or that he can’t have something (you know, like a knife). PITIFUL! HA!
Loves to give kisses. They are open-mouthed complete with the muah sound. For mommy, it seems that is now has to be an open-mouthed kiss ON THE LIPS! Everyone else gets cheek or shoulder kisses. Not I. So funny.
Loves to play with everything his sister plays with! Even if she doesn’t want him too! Another time he gets mad and gets loud is when she doesn’t want to share (which is pretty much always!). Loves to be IN HER ROOM! If the door to her room is closed, he gets very upset.
Very smiley boy!
CANNOT sit still in church! It’s totally like the boy has ants in his pants. It doesn’t help that he misses a nap in the mornings for church. We have had a difficult time with him staying happy in the nursery during church lately, too. So, Stephen or I have been paged back out of church for an unhappy child. Of course, when one of us shows, he’s fine. But, we either end up roaming the foyer with him or staying with him in the nursery while he plays (he’s fine as long as one of us is in there). But, you can’t go back into church with him. Too much of a distraction for everyone. I remember this age with Abriella. She enjoyed the nursery much more though. So, one of us may have to listen to the sermons online for a while!
Climbs! We’ve found him sitting in kitchen chairs. We’ve found him on the 2nd shelf of a bookshelf type thing we have in our living room. Amazingly, he was able to climb back off of that safely, but we have since told him that was a no-no. Anytime he gets near it, he will look back to see if you are looking. If he thinks you aren’t, he goes for it! Can go up and down the stairs. Stephen finally lowered the gate at the top of the stairs seeing as he and his sister could crawl under it. Pretty useless gate, huh? Found him at the bottom of the stairs a few times when I was still upstairs! He’s fast too! We have remedied that problem, thankfully! He also loves to slide! Our little slide that we bought for the girl is getting a lot more use now that he plays with it! She got bored with it rather quickly, but not him!
Still goes to bed around 6:30 and I get him out of his room around 7am. He’s usually awake before this, but he will play in his crib happily until I come get him. Still takes 2 naps a day, generally 2+ hrs each.
Overall, Colby is a great baby! We adore his smiles and his head nodding! We’re so incredibly thankful for him!
Now, a few things on Abriella.
She is completely potty trained! I finally decided to brave the nighttime panties. I had pretty much decided she would be in pull-ups for a long time because she sleeps so hard and never woke up dry. I was ok with that. But, right before her birthday, she started waking up in the night to go potty, and started waking up dry! After about a week of this, she agreed to wear panties at night. She has only had a few accidents, but overall has done wonderfully! I just double up her bed–mattress pad, sheet, mattress pad, sheet. If she wakes up wet (a couple of times, she wets just enough and wakes up and she stops herself), I just help her change and we pull of one layer of sheets, and she goes right back to sleep. So glad to be done with diapers/pull-ups with her! I’d much rather clean a sheet than spend more money on pull-ups!
She had gotten to where putting her to bed was a royal nightmare again! Stephen had been putting her to bed for a long time as that is what she desired. Well, I finally offered to put her to bed for Stephen while he was building his shed. Amazingly, her bedtime went so much smoother. We tested a couple of times, and she would show out anytime Stephen put her to bed. Weird! We’re not sure why she does this. She also turns up the whine factor when Stephen gets home from work. We both discipline her for such, so not sure why she thinks it’s going to get her anything when she does that when Daddy gets home. We have started alternating who puts her to bed though (as I was getting tired of putting everyone to bed as Colby wants me to put him to bed too), and she is getting better for Stephen now. So, hopefully, we’ll be back to smooth bedtimes again.
Her rest time has gotten better since she got some new stuff for her birthday that we keep in her room, specifically her dollhouse. We get that out of her closet and leave tons of books in there, and this usually keeps her in her bedroom outside of the 20 potty visits! She even takes naps some days! She always uses her pillow and blanket to sleep with during naptime, but not for bedtime, UNTIL LAST NIGHT. We MAY have ventured into her wanting to sleep with a pillow and blanket at night. When she decides to do such, I’d really like to get her some cute bedding. We’ll see!
She’s a good helper much of the time. She loves to help me clean (dusting is her favorite). She also loves to help me put my makeup on.
She is a sweet girl. I think overall, she has been easier to deal with lately. She definitely went through some terrible two’s! I’ve heard three’s can be worse, but, so far, 3 has been better for her. Praying that holds true!
Well, there is a lot more to tell about both kids, but I’m tired (and, you probably are too!).
Finally, Stephen built a storage shed in just over a week’s time. It’s great! He enjoyed his project immensely too! He got a book from the library and figured it out. We just have to finish painting it, and that will complete that project. I’ll post pictures of it, but we haven’t taken any pictures of it since the painting started. Proud of his handiwork abilities!
Ok, without further delay, here are some pictures to enjoy. As always, click on the links to take you to the albums.
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| silly boy! |
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| Backyard Fun |
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| Storage Shed Project |
Have a fabulous week!!
Purple Party!
Posted by jen on July 17th, 2010 filed in Abriella2 Comments »
Here’s a link to pictures for Abriella’s PURPLE birthday party! She really enjoyed it and we had a great turn-out at the party. I think this party is the one I have enjoyed doing the most so far. It really was fun to do the purple theme. And, the fact that she still talks about her purple party must be a sign that she really did like it. We enjoyed the whole weekend that included my mom, Little Grandma, and Rickey being with us for a couple of days. Hope you enjoy the pictures!!
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| Abriella’s Purple Birthday Party |
Have a great day!!
Another catch-up post
Posted by jen on July 7th, 2010 filed in Abriella, Colby, Family1 Comment »
Man, I am doing AWFUL at this blog thing this summer! I know there are a few that actually keep up with us this way. I apologize for my lack of blogs lately!
We are doing great! Our formal dining room is being converted to a study now. It should be completed on Friday. I believe the massive amount of rain we had last week (YAY!) slowed the drying process down for several steps, so it’s taking slightly longer than intended. But, we’re ready for it to be finished! I’ll show pictures when it’s completed as I’ve taken pictures throughout the process.
Abriella is turning the big 0-3 on Friday! She is so excited! Her “purple” party is on Saturday and she’s super stoked about that. I’ve been practicing making a purple cake for her. Seeing as I’ve never baked a cake and put icing on it or decorated it, etc, this is quite an endeavor for me. The only cakes I’ve baked are angel food cakes (which really doesn’t take much!) and one cake I baked Stephen for one of his birthdays (it was a near total FAIL, but Stephen acted like it was great anyway…good husband!). But, I wanted to do it for her. It may not be the prettiest cake, but I’m sure she’ll love it! She’s already loving the practice cake. We’ll see how it turns out.
Colby is walking all over the place. It’s so cute. I’m having a hard time getting it on video because he’d rather play with the camera than walk. Same with the still camera. I’ll keep trying! Our one “problem” now is that he won’t walk in shoes. He’s not worn shoes since he was a baby—no need for them, plus I didn’t want to pay for them. haha! Now, however, he loves the idea of shoes, and will let you put them on, but he WILL NOT walk in them. He goes all limp and refuses to walk in them. So, for now, we’ve gone back to barefoot. At least it’s summertime.
Abriella finally overcame her pooping issue (with us having to make her sit on the potty every couple of days until she produced results). Now, she goes on a daily basis by herself. The time she has chosen to do this is during her naptime though. She is allowed to come out of her room to go to the potty and then go back to her room. She can go by herself without any problems. Well, of course, this is the best time to go poop, the way she sees it. It takes up more time! ~sigh~ I am having a hard time lately keeping her IN her room! This is where a 2 story house is to her advantage. She comes out of her room and quietly goes into the bathroom and will close the door—not to go to the potty, but to play! She has been found with the sink filled completely with water, splashing around in it, on more than 1 occasion! She also goes to “Grandma’s Room” (the guest room), and plays with the puzzles or books in there. Also, very stealth-like. She does get in trouble when I finally go upstairs because I heard her room door open and never re-close…I am almost to the point of getting one of those child-locks for her room for that time and put a potty chair in there! HA! I’ve heard of people doing that. All I ask is for her to stay in her room quietly for a couple of hours everyday. We’ve let her take stacks of books in there to keep her occupied, but she still comes out for this or that, even if it’s to put the books out that she has finished. AARRGGHH!
Oh, I noticed Colby has a molar that has cut through. It’s his top left first molar. I don’t think any others have come through. Ah, on the subject of Colby. Yesterday, he turned 14 months old. Such a big boy! I’ll try to dedicate a post solely to that in a few days (probably next week as we have a party to throw this weekend!).
Ah, July 4th…forgot about that! We had a great weekend. Went to the annual Belton Parade. It was on Saturday this year since the 4th was on Sunday. It was one of the coolest we’ve been to since it rained on either side of the parade and had been raining for days. I was still sweating as it was humid as all getout! But, the kids enjoyed it! Other than that, we really didn’t do much in the way of festivities. On Sunday night, some people on the street behind us thought it a wise idea to shoot off fireworks in the empty lots right behind our fence. Nice. After it had been going on for quite a while, I encouraged Stephen to call the police, and he did. He said the officer chuckled and said they’d already had several phone calls about the fireworks and had an officer on the way…he said all this before Stephen even said what he was calling about. Stephen had just stated his name and the neighborhood…! HAHA! I wouldn’t have minded as much if A) it wasn’t illegal inside city limits, but mostly because B) the daughter heard it and woke up and was quite scared…she ended up in the bed with us. Now, as sweet as it was to have her in the bed next to me…she wanted to get RIGHT next to me, and she liked to put her elbow and knees in my side and head. And, she wasn’t even asleep! So, as soon as they finally stopped, I took her back up to bed, so I could sleep! hehe!
Ok, I think that’s all for now. Well, I’m sure there is a LOT more, but I’m tired of typing. I have lots of picture albums that I’ll share now. I found some pictures from back in May that I had never put in albums on picasa! Shame on me! Ok, here goes. Just click on the pictures to go to the album. None of these have captions yet, so you’ll just have to use your imagination as to what may be occurring!
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| Abriella flying a kite |
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| Splash Day at Preschool |
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| Fun with Abriella |
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| July 4th Weekend |
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| Colby 14 Months |
Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Don’t give up on me yet! I will get back to regular blogging soon!
A little catch-up post!
Posted by jen on June 28th, 2010 filed in Abriella, Colby, Family1 Comment »
I just haven’t been keeping up with this blog lately. I apologize to all of my loyal readers (both of you!). This past weekend, we made an afternoon/evening/night trip to and from Abilene for the wedding of Stephen’s cousin, Ethan. It was a lovely ceremony, although we were sweating profusely as it was an outside wedding. I might have chosen my outfit differently if I had known. The drive to and fro was not the most enjoyable. Abriella did great. Colby…well, first, you should never wake a child from a nap to go on a road trip. We know this, but there really was no choice. And, weddings after said child’s bedtime are just a recipe for fun. The ride home was filled with crying/screaming from the little man. He’s not a fan of car rides these days. Strangely, his sister fell asleep WHILE he was screaming and she stayed asleep! I have NO idea how she did that! She was the easy one. He fought it to the bitter end! Poor guy. Oh well.
I never did Colby’s 13 month post. I don’t think I’d be able to separate what he had done that month and this month since we are rapidly closing in on 14 months, so I’ll just combine those. I will add his 13 month chair picture to this post though. Stephen wanted me to continue with those pictures. I feel bad that I never did this for Abriella.
Update on the walking front for him. I believe today was our turning point and I do believe we are headed to a fast walking buddy! He finally decided that he wanted to walk today. I wasn’t even trying to get him to do it! (That was probably the key). And, he was walking a lot and he is so good that he can pick things up and carry them while walking and has even turned around/changed directions while walking! So, I believe it’s as we suspected that once he started walking, he would be good at it. He was laughing all day while he was doing it! Cracked me up. We’ll have to get our video camera charged and tape him.
This past week, David visited for a couple of days. We had a mini birthday party for the girl while he was here because he and Janet won’t be able to come for her party. She enjoyed it. We did it while Stephen was at work. We had cupcakes and then a few gifts. Their big gift to her (and really it is for Colby, too) was a wagon. You’ll see pictures of it. She and Colby both love it!
David took her to the park in it while Colby was napping. Then, when Colby woke up, they both played out in the yard in the sprinklers. They had a muddy good time. Colby had done this once before and enjoyed it thoroughly. I have pictures of that. I do not have pictures of this time with Pap-pa present. Maybe I can steal some from David.
This past Saturday, I went and had 1 yr pictures taken of Colby by my fave photographer, Melissa Trcka. Can’t wait to see them! This was before our trip to Abilene.
I can’t believe I’m about to have a 3 yr old! Abriella’s birthday is on the 9th. Wow! We’re going to have a party for her and she’s been saying for months that she wants a “purple party,” so that’s what we’re doing! I also asked her if she wanted a party at home or at church…and she said church! HA! So, we’re excited to help her celebrate her day to turn “free!” It’s all she talks about. “I’m about to turn free!” Love her!
Some things for me to remember about her. She is always taking care of her “kids.” They get sick (and have been sick a lot lately!), take naps, go with us everywhere, and even get spankings (as I learned today). She’s a good mommy to them! HAHA!
Sometime after we moved here, I finally started putting her in panties for naptime (it was pullups before that) and she only wet them maybe a handful of times. So, that was nice. Now, if we can just get her to wear 2 piece PJs at night, we can do the nighttime. She has refused to do this as she loves her footed sleepers. Problem with that is that she can get them undone but cannot get them zipped back up and snapped at the top. So, that leaves her depending on us at night to go potty. So, we are just sticking to the pull-up at night until we can convince her to wear 2 pieces. We’ve been talking it up lately. We’ll see. It is one of those things with her that she’s a bit OC about, like the fact that she STILL will not sleep with a pillow or blanket at night! She’ll nap with them, but will not sleep with them at night. It’s crazy!
Along the potty talk, she has always been stubborn in the poop area. She will not poop unless you make her. Lots of crying and “I don’t want to poop!” This went on for MONTHS!! We finally figured out a way that she finally did well with. We give her a stack of books and just send her to the potty. She will sit there and read her books forever, and will eventually poop. She will sit there for an hour or an hour and a half sometimes! I usually set her in there when Colby is taking a nap. I just go on and do things around the house while she sits in there. She always lets me know when she’s finished her business and I get to inspect it. HAHA! So, I still keep tabs on when she poops and make sure she goes every couple of days. Lately, however, she’s been doing it on her own more. She’ll just go to the potty and then announce that she has pooped. Yay! I’m sure y’all wanted to know all of that information!
Ok, I can’t think about much else right now. I’ll post some albums for you to enjoy.
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| Little Helping Hands |
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| Sprinkler Fun |
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| Mini Birthday Party for Abs with Pappa |
Ok, that’s all for now! Hope that gets me out of the doghouse slightly with some of you!
Happy Father’s Day
Posted by jen on June 20th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized2 Comments »
WE LOVE YOU!!
Wow!
Posted by jen on June 19th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized1 Comment »
Am I ever behind!? I haven’t been this behind on the blog in a long time! I really have nothing to blame it on except…LIFE! This crazy life has really been kicking us lately! Today we participated in a garage sale…sold a lot of stuff, which was great…unfortunately, we still could do another garage sale and have plenty of stuff to sell! HA! Colby was sick this week with a little tummy upset. Vomit and all that fun stuff! He’s better now. Thank goodness! I went to Arkansas last weekend for my mom’s wedding shower! Can you believe I didn’t take ONE SINGLE PICTURE?! The shame! Colby and I drove there while Stephen kept Abriella here. Can I just say that taking care of ONE child is SSOO easy!! How come I didn’t think that when I DID just have one child!? HAHA! It was a good weekend. Mom was showered so generously! What a huge blessing! Glad I could be there for that. Colby started taking steps over a week ago. He will ONLY do it if HE wants to though! He has started being very deliberate in his head shaking “yes” and “no” and when we say, “Colby, you want to walk to _____?” He responds by shaking his head side to side very emphatically. It really is hilarious. And, he means it! He can stand up anywhere and then squat back down and back up, etc, but he just does not take those steps forward unless HE WANTS TO. You ask him to, he shakes his head no, and then squats back down and crawls to you! Crazy boy!! Oh well! Tomorrow, we are starting a ladies discussion class at church that I will be co-leading. It will be using the book Be Angry But Don’t Blow It: Maintaining Your Passion Without Losing Your Cool by Lisa Bevere. Absolutely amazing book. I have full confidence that God is going to do great things during this class!! We are going to a wedding next weekend—drive up in time for the wedding and drive back home! I’m sure that will be a fun evening with our kids! [insert as much sarcasm there as you like!]. Well, that’s the quick and dirty on what’s going on right now. Sorry, no pics right now. Yes, I do have pictures, but I need to get to bed! Have a blessed Sunday!
Last Day of Preschool
Posted by jen on June 7th, 2010 filed in Abriella3 Comments »
Do you remember this?
and, this?
and, this?
Well, nearly 9 months, 2 houses, and 3 teachers later—(yep, her class was hard on teachers. Third one was the charm! HA!)—here is Abriella on her last day of preschool on May 27th, 2010.
She looks SSOOO different! She looked like a baby in those first pictures to me. Now, not so much! She enjoyed preschool thoroughly. Her best friend in there…Tate. I didn’t find this out until close to the end of the year. They hugged on each other every day and played together. Tate even prayed for her every night according to his mother. So sweet. We’re already signed up for next year. So thankful for BCP!
Birthday Party Pictures
Posted by jen on June 7th, 2010 filed in Abriella, Colby, Family1 Comment »
We had a great Memorial Day weekend, complete with a birthday party for Colby’s 1st and Stephen’s 30th! In attendance were us (duh), my mom, Rickey, David, Janet, Matt, Brittany, Patrick, Lindsay, Jack, Holly, Aaron, Maddy. We had a lot of fun!! Here is the link to the pictures. Enjoy!
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| Colby’s 1st Birthday and Stephen’s 30th Birthday Party |
David, how’s that for picture to word ratio?! :-p
Dear blog,
Posted by jen on June 3rd, 2010 filed in Uncategorized1 Comment »
I am so sorry I have neglected you. Please forgive me. I have been so busy lately that I have left you behind. I truly apologize! I will catch up with you soon. I have to blog about our weekend visitors and all the latest happenings around here. Such fun we had! However, tomorrow night, I will be spending an evening ALONE at a Bed & Breakfast a few towns away. Just me, myself, and I! Stephen is keeping the kids. So looking forward to this time to get renewed! I promise, I will catch up with you soon, dearest blog!
Sincerely,
Jen
Weaners and Weanees
Posted by jen on May 17th, 2010 filed in Abriella, Colby4 Comments »
Well, if I stick to my “plan,” tomorrow, Colby will officially be a weanee and I will be a weaner! I am happy and sad about this. This will be the first time since November 2006 that I have not supported a life either via nursing or pregnancy. So, that’s nice. Colby has done so well with the weaning process. He doesn’t realize that this morning was his last nursing session, although I did tell him. HA! It wasn’t until just a few minutes ago that I actually started crying about the end of this relationship with him. I’m so ready, but it’s still hard to say goodbye to that special time with him. Anyway, enough tears, right?
Today, we went for Colby’s 1 yr well visit. He is healthy and growing! He measured 29 3/4 inches long (50%) and weighed 21-5 (25%) and head circumference 18 in (25%). So, according to our doctor, he is on his way to being about 5-10 and a lean one, at that. Sound like anybody you know? Uh, yea, sounds like he takes after his daddy! I’m good with that!
Nothing much else to share. But, I did want to share some pictures that show how far the buddy has come in a year.
Ok, enough strolling through memory lane. I’m boohooing over here. Sorry. I need to stop! Where has this year gone!? Both of my babies are growing up!!